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HKCERT Territory-wide Drill Tackles Hacktivist Attacks

 

With a surge in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, the Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) recently (31 October 2012) conducted a territory-wide drill to strengthen the preparedness of local internet service providers and mobile network operators to handle such threats.

According to HKCERT, managed by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC), 352 hacking cases were reported in the first 10 months of 2012, up 21% from the same period last year.

Mr S C Leung, Senior Consultant of HKCERT, said, “The alarming trend urges for collective efforts to take down malicious websites and botnets that launch the attacks. At the drill, with the coordinated efforts of the participants, we successfully identified and took down the malicious websites that control the botnets and distribute malwares.”

With “Defending Against Hacktivist Cyber Attack” being the theme of the drill, various scenarios of DDoS attacks by a “hacktivist group” targeting a local supermarket were simulated, which required immediate actions by various parties. The drill tested their malware detection and malicious website tracking capabilities as well as incident handling procedures.

The drill participants included the Hong Kong Police, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, internet service providers, mobile network operators and other key players in the internet community (Appendix). This is the first time that mobile network operators are invited to participate as prompted by the rise in malwares and botnets reported on these networks.

For more details about the drill, please contact HKCERT at tel: (852) 8105 6060, fax: (852) 8105 9760 and e-mail: hkcert@hkcert.org or visit the webpage: http://www.hkcert.org/. For other media enquiries, please contact Justina Shum of HKPC at tel.: (852) 2788 5895 or email: justina@hkpc.org.

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Mr Jonathan Ho
General Manager
Corporate Communications
Tel: (852) 2788 6390
Fax: (852) 2788 5056
Email: jonathanho@hkpc.org
Website: www.hkpc.org

2 November 2012

HKCERT conducts a territory-wide drill to strengthen the preparedness of local internet service providers and mobile network operators to handle distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks

HKCERT conducts a territory-wide drill to strengthen the preparedness of local internet service providers and mobile network operators to handle distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks